The company has returned to work after the High Court gave an interim order not to allow the old construction company to work, not to take compensation and not to blacklist it.
A year after the contract of Mude-Charikot section under the Lamosanghu-Jiri road section was broken, the old construction company has returned to work. After the Lamosanghu-Jiri road improvement project was stalled for eight years, the Mude-Charikot road was blacklisted after breaking the contract last March.
After the project broke the contract, the construction company filed a case in the District Court of Kathmandu saying that the contract was broken when the work was completed. In 2072, India's Sakil Haider JV along with Nepali construction company Shankar Mali and Sanaulo Khimti took the contract for the improvement of 30 kilometers of Mude-Charikot road for 70 crores. In the case filed by the
construction company, the District Court of Kathmandu decided in favor of the project to break the contract and also decided to impose damages of about 30 crores. But the construction company appealed to the High Court demanding that it be allowed to work with the decision of the district court overturned. The company has returned to work after the High Court gave an interim order to allow the old construction company to work, not to take compensation and not to be blacklisted.
The Lamosanghu-Jiri road improvement project was canceled after breaking the contract. Mude-Charikot Road Division Office Charikot was entrusted with maintenance to operate the traffic. Even though the construction company has been working vigorously for 5 days after the judgment of the High Court, the government agencies are not aware of it. Despite repeated pressure to do the work, the controversial Mude-Charikot road has been stalled for 9 years.
State MP Bharat Bahadur KC said that even though the construction company is working, the quality is not there at the government official construction site. "Locals have complained that they are going to construct the road in the old condition," he said. The contractor is working on his own, government officials were not found at the construction site.'
After the old contract was broken, the decision was made that the old contractor will work after the Division Road Office called for 40 million in the first phase and 10 million in the second phase for the construction of this section. It has also confused the new contract process. Amit Kumar Shrestha, Head of Division Road Office Charikot, said that a bid agreement of 4 crores has been made with the construction company for road maintenance.
He said that the bid of another 10 crores will be opened in a few days. "We are discussing with the department what to do with the contract we made after the old contractor starts work," he said, "we have informed the department that the new contract process will be canceled or other options will be taken forward."
Ravindra Khadka, the representative of the construction company who is working by giving the decision of the High Court to the road department and other agencies. "We have sent a letter to all agencies that we have come to work after the decision of the Supreme Court," he said.
Lamosanghu-Jiri road improvement project has broken the road contract, the project has been canceled and the road improvement and development planning office has been established in Ramechhap. Head of Planning Office Ishwar Karki said that the same office which is looking at this road has not received any written information about what to do after the decision of the High Court. "In the past, we were looking at the construction of this road, but the project was stopped after the contract was broken," he said, "because we were made the opposition, the department may be preparing the answer to the decision of the higher authority." The department has not sent any letter to see the road.' Karki said that the decision letter was submitted to the office by the
construction company. "The decision letter has also been delivered to us," he said, "but it seems that he has come to work without coordination, no letter has come to us from the department asking for coordination in the office, there was no question of going without authority to see the work he has done."
In 2072, with the help of the Indian Exim Bank, the company that took charge of the construction for 70 crores has been out of contact many times, but the road that was supposed to be completed in two years is still incomplete even after the completion of 9 years.
